Articles
Matt Key, commercial director of M2M at Vodafone Group Enterprise
The world of machine-to-machine (M2M) technology has altered dramatically over the past few years and is now recognised as the foundation of the Internet of Things – a driving force for innovation in our cities, homes, cars and workplaces. The recent Vodafone M2M Barometer report revealed rapid, significant progress in more sophisticated M2M applications.
More than a quarter of all businesses surveyed worldwide now use M2M to enhance productivity, a 23% increase on 2014. M2M has traditionally been used to automate business processes in the ‘back office’, but it’s now time for it to move beyond the confines of process to trans-form everything from driving new customer experience to innovative connected products and services.
Once businesses adopt the technology, they often find new ways it can improve what they do. The Barometer study showed that 81% of those who have implemented M2M have increased their use of it – which is testament to the benefits it brings. Sophisticated users are those who link M2M with other technologies such as ‘cloud’ or ‘big data’ analytics and almost 69% of them say that M2M has transformed their business and is the key to innovation.
Adopting the technology often brings mutual benefits for the company and its customers. An example is DriveNow, the car-sharing joint venture between BMW Group and Sixt AG, which ensures the power levels in each car are correct and allows the company to monitor their cleanliness and ‘hireability’. The technology also enables integrated billing, fuel and parking costs for customers, making the service easy and convenient.
2015 was an exciting year for M2M, and the technology will continue to be at the heart of business transformation in 2016 and beyond.
For companies looking to implement M2M, we recommend four key priorities: make a long-term strategic commitment to M2M, be ambitious, collaborate, and look to the future. Practically, these recommendations mean: involving senior leaders from the beginning, looking at how M2M can have an impact across the process, avoiding silos, and making sure that data is shared across the business. Finally, remember this is going to be something that evolves as new insights are revealed, so the company will need to embrace new ways of work-ing. When embedded, the technology will fundamentally change your business.
Our findings show that the more sophisticated your use of M2M, the more significant the re-turn on investment.
Cleaning solutions provider Karcher is an example of how to embrace M2M to shift your business model. The company has adopted the technology to create internet-enabled machinery, and uses the data to track usage and the health of its machines, thereby enabling more effective maintenance. This way of working has shifted the former simple transactional framework with customers to a services-based model.
Forward-thinking business leaders are bridging business functions and extending M2M beyond company boundaries. They are eradicating silos, sharing data, and leveraging that information to transform the way they make decisions and do business.